Canadian government to improve visa processing service in Manila

More immigration officers will be sent to the visa office in Manila to speed up the processing of Canadian visa applications. This was announced by Honourable Diane Finley, Minister of Citizenship and Immigration.

The deployment of more immigration officers also mean reorganizing and putting more new spaces at the present Canadian Embassy office to accommodate the program needs of Citizenship and Immigration Canada. An estimated $1.9M has been allotted to implement this initiative.Minister Finley mentioned “Our government supports the Filipino community in Canada. There has been a longstanding concern that processing times needed to improve. Today, we are taking action and committing more resources to help applicants from the Philippines.”

Around seven Immigration Officers, three of whom are Canada-based and four locally-engaged staff are expected to be added. More CIC staff could be added in 2009.

With the increase in staff, this may help addressed the growing quantity of Temporary Foreign Worker applications and at the same time improve the processing times for other types of visa applications.

The number of temporary workers coming to Canada from around the world has soared in recent years in an effort to meet this country’s labour market needs. In 2006, Canada welcomed 8,529 temporary foreign workers from the Philippines. This number is expected to continue to grow in response to increasing demands from Canadian employers for temporary workers.[Gateway to Canada]